The Washington critic., 1887-12-09
MorHERs OF FAMOUS MEN.
Their Influence Upon the Lives of Their
Sons--Anecdotc of Agassiz.

Their Influence Upon the Lives OF Their
sons--Anecdotc of Agassiz.
Some ono in the Woman's Argosy
writes entertainingly thus
Concerning many of those women the
world knows much, but of the majority
II is ignorant. The mother of Louis
Agassiz, the scientist, was the wife of a
Swiss Protestant clergyman, and lived
to good old age. Louis was her favor
ito son, and she trained him with the
greatest care. When, in 1857, Professor
Silliman of Yale college visited her, he
found her at fourscorc IL "tall, erect and
digniiied woman" with animated adj
dress and cultivated manners. When
she was assured by her guest that her
sons adopted country loved him and
was proud Of him her strong frame was
agitated her voice trembled with emo
tion, and the flowing tears told the sad
story OF Il mothers heart.
The day that Professor Silman left
she walked long way in the rain TO bid
him and his wife farewell. Presenting
them with a little bouquet of pansies,
she babe them tell her son "pensees
means both pans and thought. On the
fiftieth birthday of Agassiz the Saturday
Club Of Boston celebrated it with din
ncr, at which Longfellow, Holmes and
Lowell read poems. In the poem of the
former allusion was made to the natural
mother as mourning over the fact that
the great mother, Nature, had driven
her son from the iireside, where she
wished to keep him.
And the mother at homo says "iiarki
For his voice listen and yearn;
II Is growing late and dark,
And my boy does not return"
Agassiz's head was bent during the
reading of the poem, but when the al
lusion to his mother was made his ruddy
face flushed with restrained feeling,
tears gathered in his eyes, and as the
last line was uttered they dropped
slowly down his checks one after an
other.
The mother of Alphonse and Ernest
Daudet, the French novclists, was an
intellectual woman. She was constant
reader, and her children were early i'm
pressed with her superiority over other
mothers, and were profoundly grateful
to her in after life for her careful train
ing of their minds. The father was
rich silk weaver, and had only an ordi-
nary mind. Loss of fortune soured
him, and he seemed to have little iniu-
ence over his gifted sons. But the
mother was their inspiration and de-
light.
The childhood of Dickens was so
Swallowed by poverty, and his sensitive
and imaginative mind was so keenly
alive TO his position, that it was hardly
possible that he could draw an absolutely
impartial picture of his parents. His
mother had q keen appreciation Of the
droll and of the pathetic and likewise
considerable dramatic talent. She was
a comely little woman, with handsome
bright eyes, and genial, agreeable per-
son.
From her Dickens undoubtedly in
herited his temperamentan intellectual
gifts. She possessed an extraordinary
sense of the ludicrous, and her power of
imitation was something astonishing.
Her perception was quick, and she un-
consciously noted everything that came
under her observation. In describing
ridiculous occurrences her tone and ges-
ture would be inimitable, while her
manner was Of the quaintest. Dickens
declared that to her he owed his first
desire for knowledge, and his earliest
passion for reading was awakened by his
mother, who taught him not only the
first rudiments of English, but also q
little of Latin. Poverty saddened and
darkened many years Of her life, and
her children were early compelled to
leave her and earn their own living, but
they all honored and loved her as she
deserved,